Pain and Reform
by myrmidryad
Summary: During and after Kankuro's fight with Sasori, Kankuro thinks back on his and Gaara's relationship through the pain and realises that he has to stop hating Naruto for helping Gaara when he couldn't, though he felt it was his duty as a big brother.


**Okay, so I was watching these shippuden episodes, and this little plot bunny jumped in my head and wouldn't go away, so here it is. It seems oneshots are the only things I can successfully complete...hmph.**

**Disclaimer: I wish I did own Naruto and all its connections and affiliations, but I don't, so I won't claim to. Hmph.**

"Karasu! Kuroari! Sanshouo!"

His puppets! Faithful, diligent, obedient…always attacking or protecting him with the barest twitch of his fingers…were dead. And this man…thing…had killed them. How!? No one had ever been able to counter his attacks like this! Not even that bug-boy from the leaf village.

The man thing, squat and fat, chuckled, the sound rasping. "You look confused." He taunted. "You're thinking, "How did he read my attacks so easily?" Am I right?"

Curse it! He was right. Did this ninja have a mind-reading jutsu? Was that how he knew exactly where Kankuro's faithful puppets were going to attack? But he hadn't made any seals or anything…

"Karasu. Kuroari. Sanshouo." The squat ninja echoed Kankuro's earlier exclamation. "The designer of those three battle puppets, is none other than me!"

No! Impossible! Kankuro's eyes widened, betraying his shock. He stared at the evil ninja who had helped to capture his brother in horror. When Kankuro had been young, and his father had shown him where the three battle puppets Karasu, Kuroari and Sanshouo lay in sleep, he had sneaked to the Kazekage's grand library and read up on his three newest puppets.

Kankuro had been ten, and had tried making his own battle puppets, but they had all had various weak spots and vulnerabilities that had infuriated him. His father had recognised (for once looking at Kankuro instead of Gaara) his growing talent in puppeteering and had given him Karasu, Kuroari and Sanshouo as a gift. The Kazekage hadn't known enough about them to satisfy his son's lust for their background, and had shouted at him to just shut up and be grateful.

Kankuro's father hadn't been the most tactical of men.

But Kankuro had wanted to know, hoping he could create his own puppets if he found who had created the three his father had given him. He had found out alright. He found out all about Karasu, Kuroari and Sanshouo, their strengths and weaknesses, their fearsome abilities. He had also found out about their creator, Sasori of the Red Sands.

At first, he had been in awe of the man's skill and genius. Creating puppets like Karasu, Kuroari and Sanshouo was quite an impressive feat. He had aspired to be like him. But as he read more, he discovered stories of the puppeteer's sadistic tendencies. There was one incident that haunted him – a young boy had been playing in the dirt near where Sasori had been practising with the three battle puppets. As an experiment, Sasori had locked the boy inside Kuroari and tested the poisoned weapons installed in Karasu on the child.

When caught, Sasori hadn't even bothered to protest his innocence. Instead he left the village, leaving his battle puppets behind, and no one had heard of him since.

When Kankuro had first began training using Karasu, Kuroari and Sanshouo, people had given him looks akin to the glances people shot at Gaara – fearful, disgusted, hateful. In a way, Kankuro had been satisfied. He had even painted his face to appear more fearsome. He had wanted, deep down, to see what it was like for Gaara to endure all that hate and fear, though he knew he would never truly understand.

"Looks like I've ended up making them wait a bit." The squat ninja rasped, bringing Kankuro back to the present. "But I couldn't resist fighting against my cute little successor and these hand-me-downs. I haven't had this much fun in a while."

"Then," Kankuro had to be sure, "You are the genius designer who created the puppet squads? Sasori of the Red Sands?" His fists clenched automatically, and a spasm of pain flashed through his chest. Kankuro didn't react. The ninja had stabbed him there after all.

"Even a whelp like you knows my name? I'm honoured."

So it was him! "You deserted the village over twenty years ago. Why are you doing this?" The pain grew, but he ignored it.

"What's the point of asking that?" Sasori said menacingly. "Right before you die?"

The pain reached agonising proportions, and then suddenly disappeared. What also disappeared, was all feeling in Kankuro's torso and limbs. He gasped and crashed to the sand. A terrible numbing coldness was spreading from the wound in his chest. He uses poison too, Kankuro realised, screwing up his face in effort as he raised his head to look at his predecessor.

Sasori held the deadly pointed tail in front of him, and Kankuro saw that the tip was dripping with some sort of deep purple liquid. "The poison has started spreading." Sasori informed him darkly, an undertone of glee in his voice. "You're finished!" The tail shot forward, too fast for the normal eye to register.

But Kankuro had no ordinary eyes. His were the eyes of a puppeteer. The familiar strings of blue chakra flowed from his fingers and he twitched them, the movement sending sharp needles of pain through his achingly cold body. The pain was nearly enough to distract him, and Kuroari's head almost missed the tail.

Kankuro grunted in relief as Kuroari's head made contact and knocked the tail away, distracting the puppet master enough so that one of Karasu's hands could fly close…closer…close enough to spear Sasori's head!

At the last second though, the puppeteer jerked his head upwards. There was a tearing sound as his long mask was ripped by the blade. Kankuro's lungs squeezed painfully as he tried to draw breath, and his fingers twitched on instinct, making Karasu's hand catch and imprison the small piece of cloth and stick upright in the sand. His scent. Somehow still able to hope and plan ahead, so that if he got out of this, he could continue tracking Sasori.

The puppet master was not impressed, however. "You're only causing yourself to suffer more." He told Kankuro impassively. "But since you want to live so badly," His tail withdrew back under his cloak. "I won't finish you off. Though that poison will kill you within three days." He turned and began to walk away, the movement and his bulky shape making him look like a slug, slowly sliming across the desert's sands.

Kankuro's eyes deadened, and everything slipped in and out of focus. His body was so cold…cold in the desert…that scared him more than anything else. He couldn't give up! He couldn't die! Not without finding Gaara! "Gaara…" His vision clouded and began to darken. His brother needed him. Gaara had never before needed anyone, and now he needed Kankuro. How long had Kankuro waited to be needed by his little brother? And now he could do nothing because of Sasori of the Red Sands. Sasori the puppet master. Sasori the Akatsuki ninja. Sasori the monster! "Damn you…" Kankuro's grip on consciousness weakened and his eyes closed, the darkness welling up to meet him. Gaara…

Kankuro was moving. His eyes were bumped open as his body was jolted, and he saw the sand rushing past. It was still light, but he was so cold. Freezing! He shivered instinctively, and cried out harshly when the movement caused burning hot pain to ripple through his muscles before slowing to a warm sting, and then return to aching cold.

"Kankuro-dono!" A man nearby cried. "Hurry! Get him back as fast as you can! I will take half of the squad and continued tracking the ones who took Kazekage-sama."

So they hadn't found Gaara. This was not acceptable! He should be tracking the enemy ninja, saving his brother! Gaara needed him.

"Go then!" Another man, closer, the one carrying him, Kankuro realised, answered. "I will send a messenger ahead."

"Yes, sir."

Kankuro shivered again, but managed to control himself this time. The cold was so strong though…it reminded him of the cold that fell upon the desert at night, though nowhere near this bad. This was painful. Did Gaara feel this cold when he was awake all night? Kankuro wondered. Gaara had always been so alone, sitting up on the roof at night when the rest of the village slept, keeping a silent vigilance over them.

Gaara had protected them all from the bomb the flying ninja had dropped, and it was Kankuro's duty to protect him now, the only time he had ever needed protecting! But Gaara was so far away, and Kankuro was so cold…

His eyes closed and Kankuro sank back into the cloying darkness of unconsciousness.

Pain!

Kankuro's eyes flicked open instinctively and he gasped in agony. There was a roof above him…a roof he recognised. He was in the emergency medical unit in Suna.

Or wait…was he?

His eyes were open in slits, and his vision slipped in and out of focus. He heard voices as if from a long away.

"Start the operation immediately!"

The ceiling seemed to swirl like Gaara's sand, and Kankuro flinched as he felt the cold leech out of his abdomen, leaving sharp stabs and convulsions behind. His breathing grew laboured and he grunted as the trolley he was on hit a bump.

In some recess of his mind, Kankuro knew that the poison was spreading and was sending him into its first stage, which was probably hallucinations and convulsions in his abdomen. A sharp spasm racked though his body, and Sasori's face appeared in front of him, confirming his suspicions.

Sasori chuckled in his raspy way and dissolved into sand that swirled, spiralled, and reformed into Gaara's face.

"I needed you, Kankuro." His little brother said in that impassive way of his. "Where were you? You always boasted about your puppets, saying that they could never be defeated. So where are you? Kankuro? I need you, and you have forsaken me."

"Gaara…" Kankuro grunted as a medical ninja wiped his face with a damp cloth, smudging his purple face paint. "Gaara…"

His mind was racked with visions of his past mingled with his present – Gaara as a baby, no one touching him, or picking him up when he wailed. Kankuro as a child, hiding in Temari's room and concentrating on making one of her dolls walk towards her as a prank. Temari snapping open her normal-sized fan at breakfast one time and blowing Kankuro's bowl of ramen up into his face. Gaara sitting on the roof, cuddling his teddy-bear and talking to himself to stay awake like Uncle Yashamaru had told him to.

-Gaara in the street, seven years old, dead ninja surrounding him. Kankuro, nine, waving to him cautiously to stop, ready to pull one of his puppets in as a decoy to let him escape if Gaara was still in a killing mood. Gaara gazing at him with cold, dead eyes. "Who are you?"

"I'm your big brother, Kankuro." He had smiled, trying to look kindly. He had always wanted a little brother, but his father had forbidden him and Temari from being near him, and he had been living with Yashamaru for years, so Kankuro had never been able to be the big brother he felt he should be.

"Big brother?" Gaara's voice was as cold as his eyes, and Kankuro's smile faltered. "I have no big brother. I have no family of any kind." He turned and walked away from the ring of destruction.

-Hiding with Temari on the roof of their house. They had heard their father, the Kazekage, order another attack on Gaara's life for tonight. Both siblings were unsure why their father hated Gaara so much. After all, he was the one who had ordered Shukaku imprisoned within him.

The masked ninjas spreading out silently, surrounding Gaara, a small, lonely figure silhouetted on a rooftop not far away from theirs. Kankuro knew one of them – Hajime – a ninja who had helped Kankuro master his puppeteering technique with Karasu. Just thinking about being surrounded by ninja in the same class as Hajime made Kankuro shiver.

The masked ninja attacking simultaneously, and both him and Temari gasping, sure that Gaara's next breath would be his last…but then a wall of sand rose up from around their younger brother, and each ninja was imprisoned in a part of it.

Then Gaara killing them one by one. Temari's horrified wide eyes. Hajime last, struggling wildly against the sand, to no avail as Gaara stretched out his hand and slowly…slowly brought his fingers into a fist. Hajime's tortured shrieks. Kankuro bending over and heaving up the contents of his dinner from earlier, retching again and again till there was nothing left. Temari's hand rubbing his back. Feeling her trembles through the contact.

-Kankuro's father telling him and Temari that from now on they would be training with their younger brother in preparation for the chunnin exams, and the attack on Konoha. Temari's fearful eyes. His own trembling fists. Since he and Temari had seen Gaara kill Hajime and the others on the rooftop, they had both avoided their younger brother diligently, never questioning why ninja would be there one day, and gone the next with no explanation.

-Meeting Gaara at the training ground. Submitting to his authority quickly, fearing death if they did not comply.

-Trying to stop him in the Forest of Death. Calling himself Gaara's big brother, with the hope that it would have some effect. Being coldly rejected. "I've never considered us siblings. If you get in my way, I'll kill you."

-Gaara injured after the fight with Uchiha Sasuke, Kankuro tentatively pulling Gaara's thin arm over his own broad shoulders and wrapping his own round Gaara's waist, taking his weight, half expecting to be choked by a stream of sand for his efforts. Gaara leaning into him and slumping into half-consciousness as he and Temari headed off. Feeling, for the first time, like he was helping Gaara. Like he was being the big brother to him he had always wanted to be.

-Gaara after his fight with Uzumaki Naruto, apologising to him and Temari. The total mind-numbing shock that followed.

-Gaara back in Suna, impassive after the revelation of their father's death. Kankuro didn't know if Temari had cried, but he knew he had. Not at the funeral, but locked in his room afterwards, the tears smudging his purple face paint. Not tears of sorrow or loss, but angry, bitter tears, as the Kazekage's oldest son remembered all the times his father had _not_ played with him, had _not_ appreciated him, had ignored, patronised, and neglected him.

-The change in Gaara after they got back. How he apologised to him and Temari again for everything he had done. "I have resolved to change." He had said, his head bowed. "To be more like this Uzumaki Naruto. I now know that you are stronger if you fight for others, and not only yourself. Next time…I will fight for you, my sister," He looked at Temari, his eyes no longer as cold as they had been. "And," He turned his gaze to Kankuro. "My brother."

-Gaara confiding in him more and more over the next two and half years, telling him of his hopes and dream to become Kazekage so as to protect the entire village to prove his worth and be accepted by everyone.

-Gaara fighting the enemy ninja in the sky above Suna. Protecting them all from the huge bomb at the cost of his own defeat and capture.

Gaara could die.

Kankuro's body twitched and spasmed on the hospital bed as the deadly poison spread further, turning his wound a deep purple, almost black. The pain in his abdomen was growing steadily, and when Kankuro regained consciousness, the first thing he did was arch his back and gasp as it hit him. He had it under control before the supervising medical officer even turned around, but couldn't stop clenching his fists and screwing his face up, though he managed to keep from crying out again.

He had never experienced pain like this before, not even when he had sneezed in a practice bout with Karasu and his own puppet had shot a poisoned blade into his leg. The scar was still there, the poison never allowing it to fade.

That had been painful, but this was agonising. The convulsions in his gut had multiplied and spread, and now his whole torso felt like the blood in his veins was bubbling, making him feel nauseous on top of the stabbing fire in his arms and legs. The lights above hurt his eyes, so he narrowed them to slits, squeezing them shut as the nausea reached a height he hadn't dreamt possible. He was unable to stop his breath hitching and groaning through his teeth, tightly clenched so that nothing more than groans and grunts could escape.

"Quick! Kankuro-san, are you conscious?" A dark-browed medic leaned over him, and Kankuro managed to nod, not trusting himself to be able to open his mouth without yelling. The dark-browed medic grinned in abject relief and turned to the pale-browed medic hovering anxiously at the side. "He's awake! Hurry and send someone to fetch Baki-sama before he slips away again!" He turned his attention back to Kankuro. "Kankuro-san, can you still hear me?"

Kankuro unclenched his teeth slowly and nodded, his eyes still squeezed shut. The pain suddenly sharpened, and he grunted, the muscles in his neck tensing painfully as his body twisted on the bed.

"Stay with me, Kankuro-san." The medic's voice seemed to echo in Kankuro's fever-ridden ears. "Baki-sama is on his way…" The voice faded into meaningless echoes of tone that rattled in Kankuro's ears and made his head pound fiercely, the pain intensified by the poison in his blood.

He slipped in and out of a dream-like state, for how long he didn't know, and then a deeper echo joined the others. Kankuro opened his eyes a sliver weakly, the tiny muscles around them stabbed with pain and ready to clench his eyelids down at a moment's notice should the pain overcome him.

"Baki…is that you?" The shapes around him were blurred and out of focus, not helped by the painfully bright light that seemed to pulse in time to the pounding in his skull.

"Kankuro!" Unmistakably Baki's voice.

"It's him." Kankuro tried to tell Baki about Sasori, but the pain flared unexpectedly and he grunted, tensing and squeezing his eyes shut again.

"Don't speak!" His former sensei ordered him. "Your body's not up to it!"

But no! Baki and the others had to know! "Of the red sands…" Kankuro dared not speak too loud in case it proved to painful. He sensed Baki move closer, his ear next to Kankuro's mouth. "Sas…or…i." He managed to grind out.

Baki's presence near his head drew back instantly. "That's it!" He heard him exclaim angrily. "So that's what happened!"

Kankuro kept his eyes squeezed shut and slipped back into the realm between consciousness and the cloaking darkness he craved to take him away from the pain lancing though his ravaged body.

Time passed. Images and visions swam before Kankuro's mind's eye, memories and events he had never witnessed. He thought he saw part of the Great Shinobi Wars, and was sure he heard the legendary Chiyo-sama say something about a man being confident about a poison.

-He saw her in her youth in the Wars, cackling as she gave the sand ninja poisoned kunai to throw at the enemy, and after the battle, screaming herself blue in the face, her long violet hair tangling into curls, ranting on about Konoha's 'slug girl', and how if not for her, the attack would have gone smoothly.

-He saw his father, ordering assassination after assassination on his own son.

-Chiyo-sama again, testing antidotes. For him? For the ninja of the past? Kankuro wasn't sure. He was burning, he was sure of it, and he tensed and groaned, feeling the flames licking at his entire body. Had he died, and they were burning his body, as according to custom? Was he lying on a pyre even now? His skin was spiking, it felt like thousands of tiny, tiny needles were being driven at his skin again and again, stinging evolving into outright torture, and Kankuro's diaphragm tightened agonisingly as he screamed silently, keeping his inflamed throat tightly closed up to prevent the sound escaping.

But for whatever reason, the pain was intensifying. He knew he wouldn't be able to hold back his screams for long. All he could do was hold his breath as the fiery spikes crucified his body and breath heavily when they abated to stabbing. It was exhausting.

The spikes suddenly flared up and impaled him from the inside out. He tried holding his breath, pulling his lungs in and shuddering silently, but the punishing torment went on and on, and he had to breathe, and then it was too late, and he yelled on reflex, his back arching and his nails digging crescent shaped scars into his sweaty palms.

"Give him painkillers." And old woman's voice ordered the medics. "And lots of them."

"Yes, Chiyo-sama."

Kankuro felt nothing as they pushed the needle into his skin. It was only one of ten thousand such needles piercing him from all directions. The effects of the drugs were slow to take hold, and incomplete – fire still flashed through his body in sporadic turns, and the aching cold was draining back – but they did have one wonderful side effect: Kankuro almost smiled when he slipped into blissful drug-induced unconsciousness. It was a thousand times better than his pain-racked waking state.

Strange illusions flew across his vision. Gaara imprisoned in a ball of blue-white fire, Temari and some ninja from Konoha trapped in a cave by a raging sandstorm, his mother telling him and Temari she loved them while she lay in agony on her birthing bed, using his battle puppets successfully in battle, Sasori slowly torturing the young boy in Kuroari before killing him…as he was doing to Kankuro now.

"Kankuro!" Was that Temari? He was sure she had been in a cave…

An old woman going crazy, and the painkillers were wearing off! Kankuro felt like he was spinning wildly, out of control, out of his body, but still feeling the pain. It spiked into his neck and he couldn't breathe! There was something on his neck, pushing him down, choking him, killing him! His hands grabbed wildly at phantom weights on his neck.

Then his eyes were suddenly on the ceiling of the room, looking down. It was that pink-haired ninja from Konoha! The one their Hokage had been training in medical ways. Kankuro strained to hear what she was saying, but couldn't make it out. All he could hear was the pounding of his heart and the bubbling of his blood as the cells were destroyed.

The pink-haired ninja ordered the medics around the bed to mix something up in several metal bowls, and shook her head when one of them pulled out a syringe full of painkillers and gestured to his twitching body below on the bed.

Crazy woman! Kankuro yelled at her mentally. I need those!

Then came the worst part. One of the bowls was placed beside her and she dipped her left hand in it, drawing it up as a bubble, which she proceeded to insert into Kankuro's chest with some of her healing chakra.

HOLYGODFUCK!! Kankuro screamed as the agony already racking his exhausted body became playful poking compared to this new torture. His body below reared up, and for a split second he saw through his own eyes again, but then the medics pressed him down again, and his eyes spun wildly back to the air above, dizzying him.

CRAZY BITCH!! He yelled, mentally clutching his chest to hold it together as she pressed her bubble into him, which felt like she was splitting him in two. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!? His heart suddenly imploded, then exploded, then tore into several bloody pieces slowly, and he was rendered incapable of anything more coherent than agonised screaming.

The insane pink-haired medic proceeded to move from his heart onto his other main organs, and it felt like he nearly died when she did his lungs and he refused to breathe in case it made the pain any worse, which at that stage seemed impossible, but there was no way in hell he was going to try it out. He wished with every fibre of his body that he had died then. Dying would be a relative picnic compared to this sadistic torture!

But then, unbelievably, the pain began to recede. Kankuro wept mental tears of relief as he realised that the torture was going to end! Finally, after almost four days of unending agony, it was going to end! He couldn't even remember what painlessness felt like anymore. His vision at the top of the room began to blur and darken, and he sank into a dreamless sleep, back inside his own body.

When he woke, the first thing he felt was the near-lack of pain. Only small convulsions and a few fiery needles remained. The second was that he was completely and utterly exhausted. He could not move a single muscle without a huge effort, so the only muscles he decided he would move would be the ones that would open his eyes.

"He's awake?"

"Yeah! He's awake! Baki-sama! Kankuro's regained consciousness!"

Kankuro moved his eyes to look to his right. There was Baki! And the yellow-haired ninja and his sensei from Konoha. When had they gotten here? They had been in a cave with his sister...his vision slipped in and out of focus, and Temari's face, taut and worried, swam into view.

"Kankuro, are you alright?" There were barely visible rings under her eyes where her mascara had smudged slightly; the product of sleepless nights. She looked so afraid for him. His sister. Warmth flooded his body and he made a huge effort to talk.

"Huh? You're back already, Temari?"

"I heard that the village was in danger." She explained.

"Sorry for making you worry." He breathed. Her response was predictable.

"Idiot! Don't say stupid things like that!" Oh how he had missed his sister, Kankuro thought with a small smile.

"Please take me to where Kankuro-kun fought." The yellow-haired ninja's sensei said to Baki, who gave him an inquiring look. "I may not look it," The masked ninja explained, "But I'm a pro at tracking. If I can get a hold of their scent –"

"Don't bother." Kankuro interrupted. Using all his strength, he pulled his severely weakened body into a sitting position. "All my puppets have been recovered, right?"

"Of course, Kankuro." Baki nodded. Kankuro exhaled. Baki knew how important his puppets were to him. "I'll have the remains brought here immediately."

Of course – the remains. Kankuro closed his eyes at the memory of what Sasori had done to his beloved Karasu, Kuroari and Sanshouo. Those three had been like extensions of his own body. They were the only ones who obeyed him alone. They were almost like his friends. For a time after he'd acquired them, he had even slept in the absolute safety of Sanshouo's iron belly, still fearing his younger brother would go on a midnight killing-spree. At least it would take Gaara a few seconds to get through Sanshouo – enough time for Kankuro to run for his life, should the need arise.

When the remains were brought to his bedside on a square of dark blue cloth, it hurt to see it. There was barely anything there. Apparently, they were the largest pieces they had been able to find. The rest had been smashed to splinters by Sasori's vengeful tail.

But he could mourn his friends later. Right now, his allies needed his information. "There were two enemies." He explained. "One of them took Gaara. Track Gaara's scent and you'll find him. And in case they split up," He went on, "I can give you the other guy's scent…" He mustered a miniscule drop of chakra and pointed at Karasu's hand, which flopped open, revealing the small piece of Sasori's mask that Kankuro had managed to take.

"I had Karasu's hand take a piece of his mask." He said to Kakashi, who knelt down and took the scrap of cloth in his long fingers.

"You still put up a fight even when you're down." The man remarked, turning the cloth over to get a better look at it before raising his head to look Kankuro in the eye. "Nothing less from a Sand shinobi."

Kankuro smiled in pride, then clenched his fist as pain spiked through his chest. Temari was instantly at his side. "Kankuro. Are you okay?" But Kankuro's eyes came to rest on the yellow-haired ninja at the foot of his bed. Temari saw who he was looking at and explained. "They came all the way from Konoha just for us."

Kankuro had used up too much energy, but tried to focus his tired eyes on the younger boy. "Uzumaki Naruto, huh?"

The boy smiled. "Hey."

Kankuro closed his eyes. "I see."

Uzumaki Naruto. The one who had managed to change Gaara, to be his idol, whether he knew it or not. Gaara respected this ninja above all others, strived to be like him. From the moment that had happened, Kankuro had harboured a bitter resentment for the yellow-haired boy. How had he managed to humanise Gaara, when he, Kankuro, Gaara's own older brother, had failed? Not even Temari with all her compassion had managed to break the sandy shield Gaara had built around his heart. This boy had done that with one fight.

For a time, Kankuro had hated Naruto so bitterly that he had considered travelling to Konoha with Karasu and killing him in his sleep for the simple reason that a random ninja from Konoha had achieved what Kankuro had always wanted to do for Gaara himself.

When he had been told that he would have a little brother, Temari said, he had been so excited, he had pestered their mother at every waking moment, wanting to know what his baby brother would look like, smell like, how big he'd be, what he'd eat and drink, what he'd do, whether he'd be able to smile and play with his big brother, whether he'd crawl as soon as he was born, and countless other questions.

But when Gaara was born, their mother had died. Kankuro and Temari had cried for hours when they'd been told, and they slept together in their mother's room for almost a week afterwards.

As for Kankuro's baby brother, his father told him and Temari that they were never to even go near Gaara, let alone feed him, play with him or even touch him. It was all strictly forbidden. For two-year old Kankuro, it had been like Gaara had never been born. He hadn't even set eyes on him till he was five years old and Gaara was three. By then Gaara was living with their Uncle Yashamaru, and Kankuro saw him only at family gatherings or in the street, when he would always have downcast, black-ringed eyes and a teddy bear clutched in his chubby toddler arms.

Kankuro had seen more of him after Uncle Yashamaru had died on a mission and Gaara had moved back in with them, but Yashamaru's death seemed to have hardened his already stony little heart, and from then on he killed people to affirm his existence. Kankuro had watched from the sidelines, first in sympathy and sadness, then in fear and distrust. But all the time there had been the sense that it was his duty as a big brother to heal Gaara's wounded heart, and when Gaara had eventually been healed, it hadn't been Kankuro who had healed him. It had been Uzumaki Naruto.

Kankuro watched blearily as Kakashi gave his ninja dogs Sasori's scent and they disappeared. Naruto wanted to leave as soon as the dogs got back, but was interrupted by two ancient figures making their way to Kankuro's bedside.

"Hey, Kankuro!" The lilac-haired old lady looked at him from under hooded lids.

"Chiyo-baasama and Ebizou-jiisama!" He exclaimed.

"I want to hear you say this one more time." The old lady, Chiyo, said. "There is no mistake that one of the enemies was Sasori, correct?" Kankuro looked away. He knew the evil puppet master was Chiyo's grandson.

"Was he, Kankuro?" Her brother, Ebizou, pressed.

Kankuro couldn't look at either of them as he replied. "He himself said that he was Sasori of the Red Sand." He glanced at Chiyo apologetically, then returned his gaze to his feet. Kakashi jumped right in and began to question Chiyo on what she knew about Akatsuki and Kankuro closed his eyes in embarrassment.

Right then the pink-haired ninja came in with a pot of what she said was the antidote to Sasori's poison. Her face shone with a light sheen of sweat from the greenhouse and her eyes were bright with success.

"You are the one who saved my life." Kankuro said as she poured antidote into a beaker. "Thank you."

"It's no problem." She said, but she smiled anyway. "Now, here…" She pressed the beaker to his lips and tilted. Kankuro had no choice but to swallow, which was probably a good thing, since it tasted foul! "Drink all of it!" She said sternly, tipping it up so the last dribble trickled down his chin and he choked and coughed, the action making his chest contract painfully. "You should be alright now." She said. "Just take it easy and sleep until the trembling stops."

"You guys should call it a day as well." Baki turned to Naruto. "We have rooms ready for you."

"No," Naruto protested, "We've got to go after Gaara as soon as possible!" Kankuro opened his mouth to agree when Kakashi stepped in.

"We'll take you up on that." Naruto looked at him disbelievingly. "We're going to have some difficult battles starting tomorrow."

Naruto's shoulders slumped as he recognised the wisdom in his sensei's words. "I know."

Kankuro looked down at his trembling hand and remembered Gaara's words on the roof so long ago.

_"In order to escape a road of solitude, one has to work hard, and forge a path with their own power. If I do that, then someday, I can be like him."_ Kankuro looked at Naruto and remembered Gaara's words in the Forest of Death.

_"Don't lecture me, you piece of trash."_

_"Enough already!"_ Kankuro had grabbed the front of Gaara's shirt, then Gaara had delivered the words that had injured Kankuro far more than he had let on.

_"I've never considered us siblings. If you get in my way, I'll kill you."_

Back on the roof, Gaara explaining. _"But, seeing him fight so hard made me wonder what a bond really is. I think I understand now, a little. Suffering and sadness…and joy…I can share these feelings with other people. Uzumaki Naruto…I feel like my fight with him taught me that. He experienced the same type of suffering as me. And he taught me that you can change how you live your life."_

Kankuro would never have gotten past his fear of Gaara to help him the way Uzumaki Naruto had, he realised. He had to accept that. "Uzumaki Naruto…" The yellow-haired ninja turned to look at him. "Please take care of my brother."

Temari and Baki were shocked, and Kankuro realised he hadn't hidden his hate of Naruto as well as he'd thought, but the boy just smiled. "Leave it to me!" He said. "I'm going to become the Hokage someday, after all! This is a chance to have the Kazekage owe me one!" He grinned and turned to leave, his teammates at his sides.

Kankuro just watched and closed his eyes once they were gone. Temari suddenly leaned in and hugged him. "I'm so proud of you, little brother." She whispered in his ear before drawing away and smiling at him before her expression became stern. "Now you lie down and sleep, you hear me? The last thing we need is for you to catch a virus by over-stretching yourself!"

Kankuro smiled and did as she told him without arguing. His body was worn out, and he needed the sleep. "Thanks, sis." He mumbled as he closed his eyes. "For looking out for me…"

As he drifted away into a painless slumber, Kankuro's last thought was satisfaction. Gaara would be okay. That Uzumaki Naruto would save him. He'd done the impossible and saved him once before, and he could do it again. Gaara would be okay, and Kankuro would be able to continue working on being his big brother once he was safe at home again…and their family would be whole.


End file.
